Votes in Congress Move to Undercut Climate Pledge

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The House of Representatives passed two measures to block federal rules that would cut emissions from coal-fired power plants, challenging the Obama administration environmental policy.Published OnDec. 1, 2015

WASHINGTON — Hours after President Obama pledged Tuesday in Paris that the United States would be in the vanguard of nations seeking a global response to climate change, Congress approved two measures aimed at undercutting him.

In a provocative message to more than 100 leaders that the American president does not have the full support of his government on climate policy, the House passed resolutions, already approved by the Senate, to scuttle Environmental Protection Agency rules that would significantly cut heat-trapping carbon emissions from existing and future coal-fired power plants.

The House votes — by 242 to 180 and 235 to 188, mostly along party lines — expanded to a global level the already profound gulf between Mr. Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress on domestic issues, demonstrating that the United States was hardly unified on the issue of climate change even as the president and other leaders sought to project solidarity.

The measures will be sent to the White House, where Mr. Obama has said he will veto them. The Senate approved each measure by an identical margin, 52 to 46, signaling that Republican congressional leaders would not be able to muster the two-thirds majority needed for an override.

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“This one trend, climate change, affects all trends,” President Obama said on Tuesday in Paris.CreditStephen Crowley/The New York Times

At a news conference at the climate summit meeting in Paris, Mr. Obama faced repeated questions about whether other leaders could trust that the United States would be able to fulfill his commitments, even after his term ends in January 2017, a sentiment that some Republicans reinforced Tuesday.

“While the president is at this climate conference, the American people have that as a very, very low priority,” said Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming. “They are focused on jobs, the economy and terrorism.”

In a later interview, Mr. Barrasso was even blunter. “The president’s promises cannot be relied on,” he said, noting that the congressional action to block the administration’s environmental rules was just one reason foreign leaders in Paris could not trust Mr. Obama’s commitments.

In Paris, Mr. Obama struck a confident pose, portraying the United States as the superpower leader on many of the world’s most difficult challenges, not only on climate change, but also on nuclear proliferation issues and global health concerns.

“My expectation is that we will absolutely be able to meet our commitments,” Mr. Obama said.

“This is part of American leadership,” he said at another point, adding, “Because we’re the largest country, because we have the most powerful military, we should welcome the fact that we’re going to do more — and oftentimes we’re going to do it first.”

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The House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, at a news conference on Tuesday. He said that Republicans expected President Obama to reduce his expectations and promises at the Paris climate conference.CreditZach Gibson/The New York Times

Mr. Obama noted lightheartedly that he expected his successor to be a Democrat. But he also insisted that the threat of climate change to human civilization transcended politics, and that he believed the next president — Democrat or Republican — would ultimately support a global response.

“Even if somebody from a different party succeeded me, one of the things you find is when you’re in this job, you think about it differently than when you’re just running for the job,” he said.

But back in Washington, Republican criticism of the president while abroad was unusually pointed. “We want the world to know that there is disagreement with the president on this issue — not about the fact that the climate is changing, but about the priority that is being placed on it,” said Representative Edward Whitfield, Republican of Kentucky, in a speech on the House floor.

“Why should this president penalize Americans and put us in jeopardy compared to other countries of the world and require us to do more than other countries are doing, just so he can go to France and claim to be the world leader on climate change?”

Other Republicans, including the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, noted that Mr. Obama’s effort to pass cap-and-trade legislation in his first term had failed in the face of bipartisan opposition, and they said the president was ignoring important reductions in carbon emissions brought about without imposing new government fiats.

“By advocating for policies like cap-and-trade — which will kill jobs, increase costs and decrease the reliability of our energy supply — the president is ignoring America’s greatest success story in recent memory,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Our energy revolution brought on by fracking is growing our economy and reducing carbon emissions at the same time.”

Congressional Republicans have taken numerous steps in recent weeks to draw clear distinctions between Mr. Obama’s views on environmental protection and their own policy preferences, which favor increasing energy production in the United States and further lowering costs for businesses and consumers.

As well as voting on the two resolutions, the House opened floor debate on a major energy bill focused on increasing natural gas pipeline development. The bill would also lift a ban on crude oil exports.

In Paris, Mr. Obama showed no sign of limiting his lofty goals, though he said he was most immediately focused on securing a global accord.

“This one trend, climate change, affects all trends,” he said. “If we let the world keep warming as fast as it is and sea levels rising as fast as they are, and weather patterns keep shifting in more unexpected ways, then before long we are going to have to devote more and more and more of our economic and military resources not to growing opportunity for our people, but to adapting to the various consequences of a changing planet.”

Mr. Obama added: “With respect to climate and what’s taking place here, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We still need a Paris agreement. So my main focus is making sure that the United States is a leader in bringing a successful agreement home here in Paris.”